Magic system idea « Thread Started on Mar 17, 2009, 8:50am »
I have been tinkering with an alteration to the magic system for Amber Diceless. I'm looking at a campaign which won't be actually set in the Amber Universe.
What I want to do is have several types of sorcery, each with a different designation. Each type would have a bonus against another type, and have a negative against a different type. Sort of like "rock, paper, scissors."
A better than B. B better than C. C better than A.
Players would put points into sorcery, then select which type it was. This would be a secret from other players. The type selected would give a modifier when going against another wizard.
Re: Magic system idea « Reply #1 on Mar 17, 2009, 8:55am »
Oh, and another thing.
If you want, you can buy more than one type of sorcery. I don't know which way to combine it, however.
Suppose a character has sorcery A and B....
1. A player has to state which type spell is being cast (A or B) at the time of the casting. If it doesn't seem to work well, the character could switch to the other one known for the next spell if he wants.
2. Maybe a spell would combine both properties (A+B) and the GM could take the best from the lot. (If B is better than C, for example, the GM could automatically default to B. If A beats B the GM could default to A. Depends upon what the opponent is using.)
Oh, and A/B/C would be replaced with something more interesting. And there could be more than 3 types; that was just an example. It could be air-earth-fire-water, for example.
Re: Magic system idea « Reply #2 on Mar 17, 2009, 9:37am »
This reminds me a little of an old SPI wargame from the 1970's called Sorcerer. (Not to be confused with the Ron Edwards RPG of the same name.)
Sorcerer had a half-dozen different colors for magic, and a chart that showed which colors had the advantage over other colors. I think they used some sort of rotation system so that everybody had different colors that were better and worse.
In the wargame, sorcerers were rated by a single color, but more advanced sorcerers could have two or maybe three colors. Their "spells" were (if I remember correctly) were beings summoned to fight each other, and when you summoned one you had to pick the color of the wargame counter. So, if a blue troll foght a red demon you would look at the chart to get a modifier before the dice were rolled. Something like that.
It's an interesting concept, particularly if you are moving away from the actual Amber setting. I could see where it might fit my Dresden Filesconcept for modern-day urban wizards fighting supernatural critters.
I'd be interested in hearing any extra details you come up with.
Re: Magic system idea « Reply #4 on Nov 25, 2009, 10:33pm »
So, Dilvish. Did you ever give this system a try? How did it work out? (The whole "rock-paper-scissors" thing seems a tad strange to me, but who knows....)
KELT-SET Bishop of Blackmoor --------------------- "The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." -- Gary Gygax ---------------------
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