How do you prefer your magic, and how did you design the system for your setting?
It would be magic if OP actually replies to a post in his own theead
Nonexistent.I used real life.
1. there is a cost2. anything that people "know" about magic only aids in the confidence of the user rather than being actual fact, ie if some grand wizard tells you the "magic words" for conjuring a fireball, you believe him because he can do it, but there isn't some code to the universe that makes a fireball, it's just that you think/will it hard enough. Basically you have to believe in yourself :)
OK, I had an idea for a magic system, where magic is some kind of force that can affect matter and interacts with human thought, but the user has to know exactly what they're doing. You can't just say some magic words to make a fireball appear, you have to know about how air molecules contain hydrogen and oxygen atoms, which can be flammable and be able to visualize the strands of magic intertwining with your nerves pulling them apart and then have some way of igniting them. Also there'd probably need to be things the caster would have to do to make themselves more receptive to the magic energy like using certain drugs and/or mental conditioning rituals to induce a heightened state of concentration. Maybe there could be shortcuts like artifacts such as paper talismans or crystals that could have certain spells pre-loaded onto them like computer programs so the yser just needs to will them to activate under the right conditions.
>>96618840>take a shit ton of peyote>you're tripping out so fucking hard you think you can see molecular compositions of objects, air, EVERYTHING - you just need to squint>The player will never know how close they came to nuking half the regionSounds pretty cool, honestly.
>>96617229I have a magic system I been messing with that more than just one "system." You have the classic mages and arcane system. Then those who are granted power from gods, devils, fey, etc. Those who have their own "power" etc. Think a Nen like system.
>>96617229I'm going to come back to this thread in three weeks and call you a nogames faggot.
I prefer magic to actually be supernatural or unnatural, and not just something that can get automated with machines. Something that can be used, but will never be understood beyond its surface-level traits like costs, effects and consequences.I have designed multiple systems for multiple settings, sometimes more than one system in a setting.
>>96617229Not my system, it was created by a quest native for his fantastic skirmish games.If any of this interests you, you can observe the system in action here:>https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2024/6108817/
>>96617229Sorcery is based in flexion of the soul, the contours of your own spirit and pulse of energy providing the final result: magical waveforms emanating from the spirit engaging in destructive and constructive interference. The reason magic isn't systematically studied is because its a spiritual process far more than a mental one, each individual needing to learn the contours of their own spirit to achieve some end. To give a comparison, you can study health and muscle development all day long, but no degree of theory will make you spontaneously manifest a fit body; further, the individual peculiarities of each body means that the most effective health plan is tailored to the individual, not a one-size-fits-all package.Necromancy is similar, but pulls on the invisible cords binding souls together. Necromancy is similarly deeply personal, because manipulation of another's soul requires an understanding of what ties you together, and what you can use to influence them. As such, necromancy is typically practiced to call on the spirits of family members for support and advice, and not the endless horde of the damned you see in other settings.
>>96619403You think this thread will last three weeks?
>>96617229Magic for mortals is entirely done through rituals which require lengthy preparations and precise hours which the rituals can be preformed. It modifies reality in some way when executed which usually persists until the laws of the universe naturally correct themselves, although the mundane effects that were a consequence of it continue to be.Most of the rituals are wild and have effects beyond what the practitioner intends. Very small changes in the ritual, such as uttering the phrases too fast or too slowly or mispronouncing them, being half a minute off in either direction, the phases of the moon, or other changes can modify the outcome and cause different side effects. A lot of the time, rituals can be fatal for their practitioners, such as one attempting to change lead to gold instead changing flesh to water.Typically, rituals are known by covens, which all have their own unique way of doing them discovered through trial and error and they typically don't experiment too often due to the danger involved. As such, you can find things like two different groups who know how to create a portal to link two places for a time, but the first group requires it to be done on a new moon before sunrise utilizing crushed pearls in a ring pattern on stone while the other just needs it to be night and can suffice with chalk drawings--there's probably better ways to do any of these particular rituals, but the cost of figuring it out is so great most people just stick with what they know.
>>96617229You missed the worldbuilding general
>>96619854This is a bumpfag thread, so unless one of the spammers who hate him show up and -1 it to death, it stands a decent chance of lasting that long on this sad husk of a board.
>>96620164I'm not denying that trash threads get made, but what's the reasoning behind it? Do they really choke out organic ones?
>>96618840I've never seen physics knowledge required for magic but in Gate it can make the magic you already have a lot stronger
>>96620164>-1 it to deathThat doesn't work too well, given that he usually shits out another thread immediately after one of his dies.
>>96619796so what does tis mean practically speaking?what are 'qualities and values' exactly?how does this all work mechanically?is there some formula that tells you how much fire/earth/whatever you can move per action?how can spell casting be limited to what you can sense, but also be moving around abstract concepts like hate?
>>96620436>so what does tis mean practically speaking?Sorry, I don't really understand the question.Its a player-side primer designed to give players a general sense for how the magic system works.> what are 'qualities and values' exactly?The values being mentioned there are qualities or characteristics of a target object/entity (otherwise referred to as a Source) which can be quantified numerically.To my understanding, almost everything in the gamespace breaks down into points of stuff.So a campfire might consist of 12 points of heat and 8 points of light.A player who stepped into said campfire might gain 3 points of pain and shock for their inattention.Somebody standing nearby who got smacked in the face by the burning player's warhammer while they were flailing about, might take 1 point of wounds and 5 points of bruising.All of these values can be pushed and pulled around through Icontheurgical Animancy.>how does this all work mechanically?Only the GM knows the nitty-gritty of everything.If you're more specific I might be able to answer though.>is there some formula that tells you how much fire/earth/whatever you can move per action?Yeah! Pretty much.I believe it is based off of margin of success. Roll-under system.So you state the intention of your action, roll 3d6, and however much you go under the target number (ThresholdStat+IconotheurgySkill-ComplicatingFactors) is how much stuff your action influences.>how can spell casting be limited to what you can sense, but also be moving around abstract concepts like hate?I believe the key there is in the word 'sense'.In essence, the criteria for using magic is that you are aware of the target value and comprehend it.Most people can pick up on somebody's hatred and can intuit it, so they'd be able to magically interface with it.Though manipulating abstracts is easier to do in yourself than others, since you are personally experiencing them and presumably aren't resisting.
Magic as a brand, or a trademark, that comes across something even more bizarre and fantastical, and the shareholders and labellers are freaking out. “Our shit isn’t as magical as the other shit! Noooo!”.
>>96617229Omnipotent "magic" ( if you define magic as anything not possible irl) is fine with me, as long as the subdivisions of magic are defined in what they can/can't do, under what conditions, and the general sphere of influence.Magic in most anime in garbage.Magic in MtG is cool.4e's power source is cool.
I like weaving as a style. Seemed fun, though easy to break so I'd never play a game with it. My setting uses two kinds, the one being just straight gifts from gods. Those are fairly self explanatory. The other is ancient technology powered by magic batteries. Lots of golems, guns, grenades, etc. and permanent buffs from god tattoos. Most of it is fairly specific application, but has roleplay opportunities.
>>96617229Narrative weight. Most wizards believe that the worlds is filled with spirits and people who manage to entertain them have more weight and power when it comes to magic. Thus a wizard can easily burn a tree, a person, or even a stone house if they aren't really relevant to any current stories unfolding within the world. But if said wizard tries to burn the Dark Lord leading an Army of the Night? Fireball will just break on his armor into harmless embers. The more important the person the better is their magic resistance and also their ability to enact magic if they have the knowledge to do so. Doing magic actually saps your power until you do something else noteworthy either without magic or with minimal applications of it. Thus most experienced wizards use magic either when it is absolutely needed or indirectly by affecting things that do not have much weight of their own - creating and camouflaging a spiked pit in advance is way easier that trying to create it directly under a marching army for example.
why would there be a system specifically for magic?
>>96623738utterly retarded lol
>>96623738You can avoid the internal inconsistencies with this system by using the original Polynesian concept of Mana. It's basically a combination of plot armor + power level that is gained by succeeding in important/influential things and lost by losing in important/influential things.If you want to make it more gamey, I'd make it an in-universe resource that can be actively spent to do magic/miracles/feats as well.
Honestly, I just really like D&Ds (and more specifically Pathfinder's version) Vancian style spells and slots (and rituals). It just works and feels good.Fail at casting a spell? It's just nothing. No warp silliness, no blood cost, no problems, just a fizzling nothing.Want to cast all day? You're stuck with the weakest spells possible, little blasts of elemental power or little more than tricks.Want big magic? Rituals! The community blessing crops every year to increase growth and counter blight? A giant Plant Growth ritual. Its works really well to give the world magic, and you can throw little nuggets of fun at players without needing to worry about unintended effects from overcomplicated rules.People always want to overcomplicate it, write lots of rules and weird lore for magic but at the end of the day most of them are shit, overcomplicated nonsense, and often turn out more fun to read than to actually play (and arent all that fun to read in the first place).
>>96617229I like to have different kinds of magic, and characters have backgrounds in them, so they can argue about the nuances and lifestyles they have. It encourages roleplaying.
>>96625578trash
>>96625593it definitely doesn't work and doesn't feel good.
>B/X hack>roll save vs spells to keep spell>spells are slave spirits that want to escape service>spells are songs 6 seconds long per level>1 minute round, 6 second segments AD&D 1e>the spirit is coerced to act according to song lyrics, magic words essentially>magic user spell-casting song can be interrupted
>>96619796Shit man, this looks kind of sick.Is it open for anyone to join, or is it pay-to-play?
>>96628038>Spells are demons bound so you have to trap them.Really nice.
>>96626176It works, that's why it's been held onto for half a century. It feeling good is case by case thing.
>>96628395> Is it open for anyone to join, or is it pay-to-play?Uh, no. There's no buy-in or weird pesudo-job interview required to join up. These skirmishes are open to the public, and anybody is welcome to partake.The only catch is that GM leads a rather busy life - which results in these games only popping up every once in a blue moon.
>>96617229Magic comes from the Aether, a sort of higher dimentional energy plane. Sorcerers are people who can perceive & direct the Aetheric energies. When doing so, the human mind & body acts as a filter. Spells give the energy shape. No super fantastical powers, mostly it's just energy manipulation or telemetrics. Fireballs, lightning bolts, illusions, etc. There are also creatures which live in the Aether. People call them spirits & they are rarely friendly or benign.
>>96634121What’s the best way to be ready for them?
>>96620203>Do they really choke out organic ones?Yes, never bump garbage like this. Notice the random incomplete thoughts and lack of real discussion? That means this thread is fake and ghey.
>>96639791The best way would probably be to join the skirmish discord channel.> https://discord.gg/m4Hemqu6Its usually pretty dead unless somebody is running something or workshopping something they plan to run.If you don't want to get involved with discord, then occasionally checking /qst/ should do the trick.Games tend to last between 2 weeks to a month, so it isn't likely that you'd miss one while actively monitoring for them.
Magic must be backed by a 'way' in order to be effective and the strength of the magic is determined by the conviction of the user and how close that 'way' is to the Truth.For example, if you want to create a protective spell, you should care about what it is you're protecting and the spell's power will be proportional to your love and how much that love matters in reality. If you're focused solely on denying an enemies attack, then the spell will be less effective and might actually empower the opponent because you're giving more reality to their 'way' which is attacking you.This gives a lot more substance to things like Vampires who have a 'way' of being enigmatic monsters who suck the life of the world and can only be killed under very specific means. Ultimately the reason they're defeated isn't because they opened themselves with explicit weaknesses, but because their desire is purely selfish and degenerate, whereas someone with a heroic heart ignores those desires and believes in principles beyond their own gratification. Thus, the heroes magic is stronger because it's very existence rejects the vampire's being outright.I used to be really about systematic and rules based magic, but as I've grown older, I've come to realize how much of our thinking is abstract, built on analogy, and how much of a role faith actually plays. Ironically, Faith might actually be the most principled thing in existence, because post-enlightenment science doesn't concern itself with the fourth cause and is inherently nihilistic. Magic then should be based on the fourth cause and works it's way down. You might not be able to resurrect your dead wife because of how much meaning her life had while the necromancer can easily animate her bones because he needs a servant to build his monuments, however if you craft a golem and infuse it with all the love and meaning her life had, then it would outclass just about anything the necromancer could create.
>>96643310An important distinction to draw is that this isn't simply:>If believe it, you can do it.The world exists and many things can be viewed to be consistent, such as death, the change of seasons, gravitation, etc. So you wouldn't be able to just suddenly throw the seasons into disarray or reverse gravity by developing a mental disorder or every drunk and mental asylum patient would be a demi-god.The belief must be in principle, which is an abstraction of the Truth, and the magic must flow from that principle. This is hard for some RPG players to understand because they want to do cool spells like Flying, Power Word: Death, Raise Dead, and they don't care too much about how they thematically do it. But a veteran player knows that there's a big difference between Flying because you're being carried by forest spirits and Flying because you're utilizing your 'mana', both can be disrupted or enhanced in various ways. The Forest Spirits carry you because you caught their fancy, if you use their magic in a simple way, they might just drop you because they're bored, which is substantially more interesting then:>I can fly because I believe I canWhat's more, if someone believes in a principle like 'might makes right' only because they've been a boorish opportunistic warrior all their life and casts lightning, then they'll be easily defeated by someone who believes 'fire is the breath of life' and has used their fire magic to cook food, do controlled burns, and forge tools because the fire mages principles are more grounded in Truth and thus their spells will be more powerful. A warlord who's conquered many empires, been to all kinds of places, defeated many enemies, and believes in the 'Primordial Truth' would be a much more powerful adversary though. This isn't to say having Faith is pointless though, since without Faith in principle you'd just have nihilism and the world would be inert.
Depends if you are asking about how people in the world manage magic or if you mean a more philosophical worldbuilding level. Spellcasting all stems from deeper metaphysical paradigms ways of understanding and interacting with reality. Mortals don’t "create" magic. They tap into or imitate the true workings of older, deeper forces.Like electromagnetism is a thing that exists in our world that we then figured out how to use for things; Magic(capital M) is just a thing that is in their world. Mortal Spellcasting (Common Magic)This is what most morals use. spellcasters use: wizard spells, cleric invocations, sorcerer bloodlines, etc. It’s functional, broad, and flexible—but ultimately *incomplete*. Mortal magic is a diluted synthesis of deeper principles. It mimics higher truths through symbols, gestures, and incantations.True MagicOther beings can go beyond merely casting magic and are more deeply connected to it. Things like the Fae, demons, or gods, don't *do* magic, they just are that way. Each paradigm, or order of creatures, governs a different logic—what magic is, how it works, and what it costs. Mortals typically borrow bits from many, but true power comes from deep alignment with one. Mastery of a paradigm may unlock exclusive high-level abilities, or change how spells behave entirely for Mages that study them in great detail, but they will also introduce limits inherent to the logic of those paradigms.
>>96617229magic mishapsLOTS of magic mishaps
>>96625178For inputs and outputs.
>>96619854bump
>>96656133lmaoNNJXYA
>>96617229A characters magic is determined by his magic stat. The higher the stat, the better he is at doing magic
